Archive: SDK Sydney Decimus Kitson Archive
Reference Number: SDK/1/2/1/8
Page: 28 recto
Description
Entry for 'John Sell Cotman' in Frederick Wedmore's introduction to English Water-Colours (Studio, 1892) (2)
An Artist Biography Extract
Date: 11 November 1932
Transcription
His life in his native place was by no means uneventful. Soon after his return he became a member and secretary of the Norwich Society of Artists, and a constant contributor to its exhibitions. At first he practised chiefly as a portrait painter, but as time went on he diverged into other walks of art, and especially into illustrative work.
In 1811 he published a book of architectural etchings, and this was followed by his “Specimens of Norman and Gothic Architecture, Norfolk Churches,” in 1816; “Etchings illustrative of the Architectural Antiquities of Norfolk,” in 1818; and “Engravings from Sepulchral Brasses, Norfolk,” in 1819.
He paid visits to Normandy in 1817, 1818 and 1819, to make studies for the illustrations to Dawson Turner’s “Architectural Antiquities of Normandy,” published in 1822. He was still living at Norwich in 1825 when he was elected a member of the Watercolour Society, and though from that date onwards he was a constant contributor to its exhibitions, he did not make a move to London until 1834, when he was appointed drawing master at Kings College School. Then, however, he finally left Norwich, and remained in London till his death. His last years were clouded by ill-health and mental decay, and his death, on July 28th, 1842, came as a release from much suffering.
From ‘English Water-Colours’ by Frederick Wedmore (Studio, 1892)